Enable SELinux¶

SELinux helps protects the user’s home directory data. SELinux provides the following:

Prevents unauthorized users from exploiting the system
Allows authorized users to access files
Used as a role-based access control system

For more information, see Percona Server and SELinux

Red Hat and CentOS distributes a policy module to extend the SELinux policy module for mysqld. We provide the following:

Extended module for pxc - an extension of the default module for mysqld distributed by the operating system.
wsrep-sst-xtrabackup-v2 - allows execution of the xtrabackup-v2 SST script

Modify policies¶

Modifications described in Percona Server and SELinux can also be applied for Percona XtraDB Cluster.

To adjust PXC-specific configurations, especially SST/IST ports, use the following procedures as root:

To enable port 14567 instead of the default port 4567:

Find the tag associated with the 4567 port:

$ semanage port -l | grep 4567
tram_port_t tcp 4567

Run a command to find which rules grant mysqld access to the port:

$ sesearch -A -s mysqld_t -t tram_port_t -c tcp_socket
Found 5 semantic av rules:
    allow mysqld_t port_type : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;
    allow mysqld_t tram_port_t : tcp_socket { name_bind name_connect } ;
    allow mysqld_t port_type : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;
    allow mysqld_t port_type : tcp_socket name_connect ;
    allow nsswitch_domain port_type : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;

You could tag port 14567 with the tramp_port_t tag, but this tag may cause issues because port 14567 is not a TRAM port. Use the general mysqld_port_t tag to add ports. For example, the following command adds port 14567 to the policy module with the mysqld_port_t tag.

$ semanage port -a -t mysqld_port_t -p tcp 14567

You can verify the addition with the following command:

$ semanage port -l | grep 14567
mysqld_port_t                  tcp      4568, 14567, 1186, 3306, 63132-63164

To see the tag associated with the 4444 port, run the following command:

$ semanage port -l | grep 4444
kerberos_port_t                tcp      88, 750, 4444
kerberos_port_t                udp      88, 750, 4444

To find the rules associated with kerberos_port_t, run the following:

$ sesearch -A -s mysqld_t -t kerberos_port_t -c tcp_socket
Found 9 semantic av rules:
allow mysqld_t port_type : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;
allow mysqld_t rpc_port_type : tcp_socket name_bind ;
allow mysqld_t port_type : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;
allow mysqld_t port_type : tcp_socket name_connect ;
allow nsswitch_domain kerberos_port_t : tcp_socket name_connect ;
allow nsswitch_domain kerberos_port_t : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;
allow nsswitch_domain reserved_port_type : tcp_socket name_connect ;
allow mysqld_t reserved_port_type : tcp_socket name_connect ;
allow nsswitch_domain port_type : tcp_socket { recv_msg send_msg } ;

If you require port 14444 added, use the same method used to add port 14567.

If you must use a port that is already tagged, you can use either of the following ways:

Change the port tag to mysqld_port_t
Adjust the mysqld/sst script policy module to allow access to the given port. This method is better since all PXC-related adjustments are within the PXC-related policy modules.

Work with `pxc_encrypt_cluster_traffic`¶

By default, the pxc_encrypt_cluster_traffic is ON, which means that all cluster traffic is protected with certificates. However, these certificates cannot be located in the data directory since that location is overwritten during the SST process.

Review How to set up the certificates. When SELinux is enabled, mysqld must have access to these certificates. The following items must be checked or considered:

Certificates inside /etc/mysql/certs/ directory must use the mysqld_etc_t tag. This tag is applied automatically when the files are copied into the directory. When they are moved, the files retain their original context.
Certificates are accessible to the mysql user. The server certificates should be readable only by this user.
Certificates without the proper SELinux context can be restored with the following command:

$ restorecon -v /etc/mysql/certs/*

Enable enforcing mode for PXC¶

The process, mysqld, runs in permissive mode, by default, even if SELinux runs in enforcing mode:

$ semodule -l | grep permissive
permissive_mysqld_t
permissivedomains

After ensuring that the system journal does not list any issues, the administrator can remove the permissive mode for mysqld_t:

$ semanage permissive -d mysqld_t

Get expert help¶

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Last update: 2023-07-21